As a company with limited cash reserves, your best bet is a production framework that allows one team to create a hybrid application out of a single codebase.
What is Flutter?
Developed by Google, Flutter is a platform-agnostic, open-source SDK to create user interfaces of apps that can function on multiple platforms. As a result, Flutter facilitates building cross-platform app solutions that can be scaled and run smoothly on various operating systems.
Google says Flutter aims to build “beautiful native apps in record time.” It says: “Flutter works with existing code, is used by developers and organizations around the world, and is free and open source.”
Let's look at the competitive advantages this UI framework can offer your company’s app development project.
Why Flutter Kills It in Cross-platform App Development?
1- Streamlined App Development
Flutter 3 is compatible with six platforms, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Fuschia, and the web.
Let's compare the smoothness Flutter supplies, as compared, to its biggest rivals — Android and iOS. Native platforms demand users to code in specific languages like Java and Kotlin for Android and Objective-C and Swift for iOS.
It means you create and tackle separate codebases for each platform you cater which requires different programming prowesses. So, you hire more professionals and pay them a handsome amount.
And your time to market also dramatically increases in developing several builds for the same app. High-end organizations may not give a damn about the expenses, but you do as a micro, small, or medium-sized business.
2- Dodges Feature Disparity
You upgrade your product, but one or more operating systems were not able to comply with this update. Your users will find out that your app is updated on, say, Android but still present in the old version on, say, iOS.
It will negatively impact your business credibility as regular users don't understand the feature disparities of app development platforms.
Meet Flutter’s reusable widget — your saviour from this undesirable situation. Developers can use one codebase for all OS via its widgets used not only for mobile apps but progressive web apps and desktops as well.
3- Control over Code
Google designed Flutter to facilitate app creation across platforms in one composable repository, offering extreme control over the code.
Your developers can easily edit and evolve your product as your business see fit with convenience through the reusable widgets.
Moreover, Flutter supports most editors and IDEs which use Dart language, including IntelliJ IDEAS, VS Code, and Android Studio.
This technology helps your team members to collaborate on the project regardless of their job roles and place in the production cycle.
What Does Flutter’s Cross-platform Support Feature Contribute to Your Business?
- Cut Costs
Experts say Flutter app development in Dubai pays for each penny you spend in terms of performance. Google doesn't develop Flutter as just another UI SDK. its savvy app developers understand more than anyone the significance of app creation across platforms with one codebase.
Not just that, Flutter decreases the lines of code programmers have to write with its reusable widgets. Yes, its hybrid-friendly UI builds can be used in place of more than 90% of the code, saving time, energy, and of course costs.
And the app’s performance is as superb as the native apps. Instead, Flutter serves users with low budgets to build interactive and feature-packed products while limiting spending.
No doubt, Flutter stands among the top most popular app development frameworks available.
- Release Rapidly
You have just launched your dream startup and are thinking to set foot in the digital world with a mobile app. You have two options — either create a native application for a specific platform and cater to only a part of your audience (which uses that platform).
Or create separate versions of the same product for multiple operating systems, taking more time before you even set foot in the industry.
Businesses need faster time to launch their products while serving their target audience to avoid losing profits.
Fast Testing Mechanics
Do you know about the hottest feature of the phenomenal SDK we are discussing? Let us introduce you to the Hot Reload feature.
This feature allows users to edit the code and preview the changes in the UI in real time without having to publish the app again and again.
Experienced developers know the prominence of frequent testing in the app development process. Flutter helps them fix the bugs and experiment with code effortlessly.
Fast testing and having a single codebase help Abbey Road Studios solve its problem.
Abbey Road Studios is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road in London. They first launched a native app for iOS, which makes them realize that their users demand an Android app too.
Their team decided to give Flutter a go and built a cross-platform application with this SDK. The result: 100 percent feature parity on iOS and Android with reduced development time.
Want to hear more? Reflectly was a startup with only two developers on its team. They estimated that developing an application for both Android and iOS would take approximately five months.
Then, they turned to Flutter and halved the initial timeline. Sounds unbelievable? They attributed this speed to flutter’s widgets. An intuitive, simple design and monthly double-digit growth are the added benefits they still enjoy.
4- Perfect Performance
inVerita conducted Gauss-Legendre and Borwein Algoroth CPU-intensive tests for Android and iOS and found Flutter to compile 95 percent quicker than other frameworks.
There are three actors behind the near-native speed and high performance of Flutter.
- Dart programming language, which is the most effective object-oriented language
- Flutter’s DevTools offer profiling, show code coverage, and the super popular performance overlay
- Skia rendering engine that saves your apps from looking janky and jittery.
How Flutter Attains Faster Functionality?
According to BuildFire, 71 percent of application consumers abandon it during the first three months of installing the app. 66% leave after 2 months, and 57% after one month.
Users often get disheartened by an application due to its slow loading. For example, TechJury reported that seventy percent of users leave a mobile app if it loads very slowly.
These statistics are alarming for businesses that launch apps. Thus, many of them prefer Flutter as it strives to function a minimum of 60 frames/second or 120 fps on gadgets able to 120Hz and higher. This ensures seamless UI for users without any stuttering.
3- Flutter’s Fame
Developers worldwide have created over 36,889 applications with Flutter, and the SDK has been installed more than 11 billion times.
As per Statista, a survey was conducted to identify the most sought-after frameworks globally. It found that 13.52% of app developers have not used Flutter but want to, making it the second most sought-after SDK among developers worldwide. (TensorFlow ranked first, sought after by 15.33% of professionals).
Flutter has won giants like Toyota, eBay, Alibaba, BMW, and broadway-favourite Hamilton.
Reasons for Flutter’s Popularity as a Framework
Flutter is the brainchild of the giant tech company Google which has invested efforts, money, and time into developing this framework with love and care.
On the flip side, many other SDKs for app development have been created by one person and are maintained by community developers. These frameworks have an unpredictable future. Nobody knows if volunteers will keep maintaining and refining them to match the new trends and technologies and compete with rivals.
However, Flutter has the support of Google, which makes developers prefer to pour their time into learning to use it.
Why Flutter Over React Native?
The perks discussed above are not unique — other cross-platform UI toolkits, such as Codename One and React Native offer them too.
Let's first talk about React Native. It lacks the feature parity and cross-functionality Flutter offers, thanks to its developer Google’s focus on these aspects.
React Native applications often start stuttering after an Android or iOS update launches. The culprit behind this bad performance is its usage of native elements in Android and iOS.
Flutter, on the other hand, has its own graphics engine that renders and manages the platform’s custom widgets. This keeps Flutter apps intact when an operating system updates its software because Flutter doesn't depend on the OS’s native elements.
Why Flutter Over Codename One?
Some argue that Codename One is a better option than Flutter for someone who has never used a mobile cross-platform framework. Some think of Codename One as a substitute for Cordova, NativeScript, and React Native for beginners.
But we disagree. Codename One serves mainly Kotlin and Java developers. Very few individuals have a command over both languages.
Newbies may find Kotlin to be rigid, wordy, and super technical. Secondly, Codename One lacks the detailed documentation Flutter provides to help developers who are starting.
What is in for Your Business?
Future-oriented companies should develop their products using Flutter as a UI toolkit as it has a lot of potential to become an industry leader in the years to come.
It is a very big and close-to-heart project for Google which indicate that it will continue to pour efforts to amplify and refine this platform to align it with the requirements of changing time.
Bottom Line
Whether you are a business or an industry leader in app development, you need to solve the problem of optimizing time to market for your product.
Experienced app developers or agencies should have two things — Suitable technologies for app development and a well-thought-out app creation plan.
Companies need to launch their product to the market in less time, with fewer costs and fewer complications. It might be a paralyzing obstacle for new businesses that need synchronous production.
Flutter offers the perfect solution to this issue businesses like yours face while developing an app. Contact Maven Digital today to build a functional, phenomenal, and fast Flutter app to boost your business’s revenue!
FAQs
1- What are the Flutter app development costs?
Developing an app using Flutter as a framework can cost you between 25k dollars to 200k dollars, depending on your requirements and project parameters.
2- Is Flutter an app development framework of the future?
Yes, developers will certainly use Flutter in the future as it allows them to employ a single codebase to build hybrid apps. Plus, it substantially decreases the time and energy required to pour into app development.
3- Why should developers select Flutter instead of native application development?
Flutter works better in attaining higher performance on cross-platform applications than React Native. It supports all platforms and provides a valuable UI components library.
4- Why are Flutter apps big in size?
When you render your product with flutter run, or by hitting the Play button in your Interactive Development Environment (IDE), it creates a debug build of the app by default. The debug build is big due to the debugging overhead that enables source-level debugging and hot reloads.
5- Why does Flutter use Dart as its programming language?
Dart facilitates the building of seamless animations and transitions that process at 60fps. It is an object-oriented programming language that can allocate an object and collect garbage without locks. Dart helps flutter dodge preemptive scheduling and distributed storage space.
